it made america the envy of the world and let richard nixon go to moscow and tell the soviet leader we have a classless society. >> suarez: that is also... the people living that dream are also numerically the largest part of the united states. how did they become so politically weak? >> well, they were very strong back then. as you know, ray, the environmental movement was strong, put pressure on washington. the labor movement was strong, put pressure on general motors and general electric and the u.s. steel and so forth. the civil rights movement put pressure on washington to open up the american dream to blacks and other minorities. part of what happened to them was it was so successful. but part of what happened to them was there was a power shift. there was a tremendous change of power in washington, and that had big effect on the ability of middle class americans to achieve the american dream. the other thing that happened is what i call wedge economics. the splitting of the american middle class off from the games of the national economy. so that today you can see the economy im